Hunting lobby sways Castilla-La Mancha on greyhounds

► Move to exclude hunting dogs from new regional animal-protection law ►

The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha has bowed to the demands of hunters, excluding from proposed animal-protection legislation greyhounds and other dog breeds used to chase down prey during hunting season.

The move has been denounced by the Spanish Federation for Animal Welfare (FEBA, Federación Española para el Bienestar Animal) as an “absurd and unjustifiable discrimination” against dogs, leaving them completely “defenseless and without legal protection against certain cruel and abusive practices” by hunters.

Originally, the law was to have applied the same protective measures to all animals, including those used in hunting, and would also have required the sterilization of dog breeds used by hunters as a means of restricting the unregulated breeding of the animals.

But two regional associations of hunters in Castilla-La Mancha that prevailed on the government to remove the language on sterilization of hunting dogs have celebrated the changes as a victory. A spokesman for one association said the regional hunting lobby has successfully “avoided animal-rights activists from using ambiguous and general wording to do away with hunting with dogs” in the regional community.

FEBA says the discrimination against dog breeds in the animal-welfare legislation would contravene the terms of the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, of which Spain is a signatory, and promised legal action against the Castilla-La Mancha community if hunting dogs are exempted from the final legislation.